Field Book Projecttag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-941605117630604932015-03-10T13:30:00-04:00TypePad#FWTrueLove Closuretag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a01156e4c2c3d970c01b7c75ef117970b2015-03-10T13:30:00-04:002015-03-10T13:30:00-04:00It is March, and with the end of winter also comes the end of the #FWTrueLove project! It was a great success by all measures. Thank you to all of those who participated! In fact, thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm from our curators, staff members, and Volunpeers, we...Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

It is March, and with the end of winter also comes the end of the #FWTrueLove project! It was a great success by all measures. Thank you to all of those who participated!

In fact, thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm from our curators, staff members, and Volunpeers, we were able to catalog, digitize, post online, and transcribe the entirety of True’s field book collection at the Smithsonian! That's over 500 pages of transcribed material from 60 contributors, now full-text searchable on the Smithsonian Collections Search Center as well as the Transcription Center. It represents a tremendous advance in accessibility for items that were previously only available to those willing to travel to the Smithsonian and dig through the archives until they stumbled upon what they needed. Thank you all again for your efforts.

During the project, using #FWTrueLove, we made memes and gifs and created a new awareness of who Frederick William True was, and his importance to Smithsonian and scientific history. Using #FWTrueDetective, we made fun discoveries about True's work and travels as well as the origins of some of the specimens in NMNH. We loved engaging with our Volunpeers on Twitter, where we received over 1 million impressions for the project. We also enjoyed hosting the Google Hangouts in order to give our Volunpeers an inside look at Nick Pyeson’s work, the Smithsonian’s fossil marine mammal resources, the Kellogg Library, and the Cullman Library. Thank you again for making it all a success, and look out…we just might do another theme month in the fall!

With #FWTrueLove,

Julia Blase, Project Manager, Field Book Project

Nick Pyenson, Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals, NMNH

Meghan Ferriter, Project Manager, Transcription Center

Lesley Parilla, Cataloger, Field Book Project

Kira Sobers, Digitization Coordinator, SIA

Grace Costantino, Social Media, BHL

Effie Kapsalis, Social Media, SIA

Erin Rushing, SIL

…and all of the other staff who contribute their valuable time.

#FWTrueLove: the Tour!tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a01156e4c2c3d970c01b7c757ade8970b2015-03-02T16:10:35-05:002015-03-03T14:10:07-05:00Join us tomorrow for #FWTrueLove: the LIVE tour! 03 March 2015 - 3:00-4:00 pm EST National Museum of Natural History, Department of Fossil Marine Mammals & Remington Kellogg Library On February 13, we issued Smithsonian Transcription Center volunteers an #FWTrueLove challenge - and they stepped up in a big way!...Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

On February 13, we issued Smithsonian Transcription Center volunteers an #FWTrueLove challenge - and they stepped up in a big way! The first 399 pages were transcribed in just over four days, wrapping up just in time for our Google+ Hangout with curator Dr. Nick Pyenson. It was only fitting to release more correspondence and, upon that set’s completion, two final field books.

In the end, an average of 22 volunteers contributed to the six sets of Frederick W. True correspondence and field notes. In total, 523 pages were completely transcribed and reviewed in just two weeks!

#FWTrueLove Updatetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a01156e4c2c3d970c01b8d0ded7d8970c2015-02-27T08:25:34-05:002015-03-02T09:13:24-05:00The #FWTrueLove Challenge was issued on February 13 and volunteers rose to the call - tackling 3 projects consisting of 399 pages in just over 4 days! That was an average of 31 volunteers per project. We're thrilled with the level of participation and interaction between staff and volunpeers. Below...Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

The #FWTrueLove Challenge was issued on February 13 and volunteers rose to the call - tackling 3 projects consisting of 399 pages in just over 4 days! That was an average of 31 volunteers per project.

We're thrilled with the level of participation and interaction between staff and volunpeers. Below are a few statistics.

This included activity across the world -- Canada, UK, Australia, France, New Zealand, and US. As a result of volunpeers' great work, we hosted a Contribute&Connect Google+ Hangout with Nick Pyenson on February 18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE3XQfIjIrU which was viewed 26 times, with 9 people watching live.

If you haven't yet taken part, or just need a little more #FWTrueLove, we are happy to announce the last two projects are now on Transcription Center. The links are below.

#FWTrueLove Social Network tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a01156e4c2c3d970c01b7c74bd827970b2015-02-13T14:30:00-05:002015-02-20T10:56:06-05:00Welcome, Transcription Center Volunpeers and #FWTrueLove fans! Below is where we will record and encourage your #FWTrueDetective discoveries. The list below will be updated daily with new facts uncovered by our community while transcription of the FW True materials is ongoing. Discoveries will follow the format below, which is: Category...Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Welcome, Transcription Center Volunpeers and #FWTrueLove fans! Below is where we will record and encourage your #FWTrueDetective discoveries. The list below will be updated daily with new facts uncovered by our community while transcription of the FW True materials is ongoing. Discoveries will follow the format below, which is:

Category

Name

Fun facts and connections

More information: (links)

..etc.

Thank you very much for helping us discover more of these facts about Frederick William True!

1. F. W. True worked with:

Albert Spear Hitchcock (later in True’s years as Assistant Secretary)

A. S. Hitchcock worked with Doris Cochran.

At one time, True refused Doris Cochran permission to go to Panama with Hitchcock!

The FWT 1904 Whalebone whales publication was landmark contribution, more so than Delphinidae, in that FWT cleared the identity of species that were misunderstood, confused and amalgamated for decades prior.

146 years! Looking at the lifetimes of the people in True’s social network, his network access covered 146 years, from 1823 (birth date of Spencer Baird) to 1969 (death date of Remington Kellogg).

#FWTrueLove Transcription Challengetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a01156e4c2c3d970c01b7c74bd745970b2015-02-13T13:30:00-05:002015-02-13T13:30:00-05:00The Field Book Project presents, in partnership with the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Pyenson Lab, Smithsonian Transcription Center, Smithsonian Archives, and Smithsonian Libraries: an F.W. True Love story. Starting now, the Frederick William True field notes are LIVE in the Smithsonian Transcription Center. There are four projects so far and you...Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Starting now, the Frederick William True field notes are LIVE in the Smithsonian Transcription Center. There are four projects so far and you can find them here. We #FWTrueLove Challenge you, fair volunpeers, to complete these field notes by the afternoon of Wednesday, February 18. That will be just in time for a bit of HangTime with Dr. Pyenson.

On Wednesday, February 18, Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals Dr. Nick Pyenson will share the interdisciplinary nature of F.W. True's scientific pursuits - plus True’s connections with Smithsonian researchers Stejneger, Dall, Wetmore and, yes even, Baird! As you’re transcribing, you’ll want to read more about True’s time at the Smithsonian Institution in posts from PyensonLab and the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

You know this much is True.

BUT WAIT! There’s more to the #FWTrueLove Challenge than transcribing: The Field Book Project wants to know what you’re discovering and you’ll have the chance to unlock even more handwritten correspondence. Here’s what you can do:

Help us map True’s social network

Share interesting True Facts

Review

E-mail us or tweet using the hashtag #FWTrueDetective as you identify interesting facts, correspondents, locations, and other relationships. The details you share will be graphed on the Field Book Project blog. Watch that space for more details of the challenge (*hint!) as it unfolds through the end of February. Curious minds, get ready...

True Detective: Frederick W. True’s Lifelong Dedication to Uncovering the Natural History of Marine Mammalstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a01156e4c2c3d970c01bb07eecf04970d2015-02-12T12:00:00-05:002015-02-11T14:26:32-05:00As posted on Pyenson Lab, February 12, 2015, by John Ososky and Nick Pyenson The Smithsonian Field Book Project is showcasing Frederick William True in February! This post is follows in a series of blogs and social media content from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Pyenson Lab, Smithsonian Transcription Center, Smithsonian...Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

In 1858, the inland port of Middletown, Connecticut, was the largest manufacturer of marine hardware in the United States, at a time when the shipping industry shifted from sails to steam. Frederick W. True was born that year, and unsurprisingly developed a lifelong interest in ships and fisheries, especially as he witnessed the decline of the Yankee whaling industry. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1878, he took a job as clerk with the U.S. Fish Commission, which at the time was headed by the Smithsonian’s second Secretary, Spencer Fullerton Baird.

While Secretary of the Smithsonian, Baird also decided to serve as the first Commissioner of the U.S. Fish Commission (a precursor to NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service). Under Baird’s guidance, the Commission became a robust scientific enterprise, undertaking extensive surveys of fisheries along all U.S. coastlines, censuses of fishery laborers, and also collecting data on target species and fisheries infrastructure. Baird was strategic about his influence, and he used the expansion of the Commission as an opportunity to hire promising young naturalists — such as True — and get their foot in the door at the Smithsonian.

Recruited by Baird, True was initially a special agent for the U.S. Fish Commission, but eventually Baird put him in charge of the joint Smithsonian-U.S. Fish Commission display at the Berlin Fisheries Exhibition of 1880, where many of the specimens collected by special agents for the Commission were put on display. At the time, the Smithsonian lacked an official library (for various historical reasons), and Baird rectified this situation in 1881 by donating his own personal library to form the core of a new research library at the Smithsonian. Baird recognized True’s diligence and acumen as a reseacher, and hired him to lead it. True seized on the opportunity, and improved on the idea immediately, forming divisional libraries to meet the specialized needs of individual curators, which still continue to this day (such as the Kellogg Library of marine mammalogy, named in honor of Remington Kellogg, who never met True but succeeded him as a Smithsonian marine mammalogist).

True sometimes diverged from his role as a librarian to fill a void as acting curator of mammals; Baird, who noted True’s ambition and drive, soon appointed him curator of mammals in 1883. While microscopic descriptions were the rage in natural history at the time, True’s poor eyesight made this type of work difficult. True instead recognized the wealth of marine mammals specimens at the Smithsonian that had been generated in part by Baird’s collections from the Commission, as well as collections made by Captain Charles M. Scammon in the North Pacific Ocean in the 1870s and the prolific Edward Drinker Cope, who had been hired by Baird to write a monograph on cetaceans, which only came to partial fruition. Thus, True had the opportunity and motivation to expand his interest in marine fisheries and take on the study of cetaceans.

In 1895, the U.S. Fish Commission called True back into service for a study on the Northern fur seal industry in the Pribilof Islands, off Alaska. The Commission, lacking confidence in the local Russian naturalist’s conclusion about sustainable yield of fur seal skins from the islands’ rookeries, launched their own investigations. True, as he would in other field expeditions, brought along his father-in-law, D. W. Prentiss, as well as one of his chief preparators, William H. Palmer, who collected specimens while there. (Palmer would also later collect Miocene fossil marine mammals for True in Calvert County, Maryland). En route to the Pribilofs, the team dropped off another Smithsonian curator, Leonhard Stejneger, at the Commander Islands, near the Kamchatka Peninsula of modern-day Russia. Stejneger, who slightly preceded True, collected many marine mammals as well, including a beaked whale specimen that True named for him, Mesoplodon stejnegeri. True’s report on their work at the Pribilofs offered novel conservation strategies for the population, although he viewed a ban on pelagic sealing as the only effective strategy.

In 1899, True travelled to Newfoundland where a shore based whaling operation had been started by the Cabot Whaling Company at Snooks Arm in Notre Dame Bay. True joined the crew on the steam powered ships as they harpooned and returned to the station fin whales, as well as a smaller number of humpbacks. True observed and photographed the whaling operation, but also participated in crew activities, even including manning the harpoon on a successful fin whale hunt. As whales were flensed and processed, True availed himself of an opportunity to study the whale’s anatomy, especially at a second station that was opened at Balaena Station in Hermitage Bay, Newfoundland, in 1901. There, the primary target species were blue whales, which were too fast and too large for earlier fisheries to tackle. This operation offered an exciting new opportunity to study them, and generated important collections for the USNM, including a full plaster cast of one individual for the St. Louis Exposition of 1903.

True’s ultimate contributions to marine mammal science were three profound monographs on Cetaceans. Grace Costantino provided a nice summary of his 1899 monograph on oceanic dolphins (“A Review of the Family Delphinidae”) at BHL’s blog last week. True’s lengthy “Whalebone Whales of the Western North Atlantic” in 1904 marked the first affirmative answer to whether baleen whales on opposite sides of the Atlantic constituted the same species and populations. To arrive at that conclusion, True provided the first extensive review of the validity of earlier descriptions of American whales by Scammon and Cope, an effort which relied on his own travels to other museum collections, and the rapidly growing one at his home institution (USNM). His 1910 work on beaked whales (“An Account of the Beaked Whales of the Family Ziphiidae”) similarly cleared up a mess of older taxonomic names for this enigmatic group of toothed whales, which have been a special strength of the Smithsonian since the time of Baird. In the past 100 years, many beaked whale species have been named after Smithsonian curators and other research associates, including: Baird’s beaked whale (Berardius bairdii), Stejneger’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon stejnegeri), True’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus) and Perrin’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon perrini by emeritus curator of marine mammals James G. Mead). For his own contributions, True’s name is bestowed on the common names of two rodent species that he described and published on from Asia.

In True’s entry for the Dictionary of American Biography, Alexander Wetmore (an ornithologist, Smithsonian curator, and the sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian) reflected that True was “profound as a student, and exact and punctilious as an administrative officer,” traits that no doubt served him well in his major capacities at USNM. By 1897, True was appointed head curator of the Department of Biology, with broad administrative direction over all biological work at USNM, and served as acting secretary of the entire institution for a short period of time that year. When the natural history collections of USNM moved across the National Mall to the newly built natural history building in 1910 (today, the main museum for NMNH), True became assistant secretary of the Smithsonian in charge of the library and of the international exchange service, a position that he occupied until his death in 1914.

During the month of February, the Smithsonian Field Book Project is celebrating Frederick William True, a scientist, librarian, and administrator who worked for the Smithsonian from 1881 until his death in 1914. You can find an introduction to the project at (link to blurb, below, on FBP blog) and, as the month unfolds, additional information at the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Pyenson Lab, Smithsonian Transcription Center, Smithsonian Archives, and Smithsonian Libraries blogs and social media accounts, using the hashtag #FWTrueLove. Please join in the fun and let us know what you discover about Frederick William True!

It's #FWTrueLove!tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a01156e4c2c3d970c01b8d0ce450a970c2015-02-04T08:00:00-05:002015-02-12T15:57:40-05:00Page from "Two notebooks of Frederick William True containing field notes and daily entries on seals and other wildlife on St. Paul Island, Kelaire, Lukannan, Polovina, Tolstoi, and St. George's Island, Alaska." SIA RU007181 Frederick William True Papers, circa 1886-1910. During this month of February, the Smithsonian Field Book Project...Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

During this month of February, the Smithsonian Field Book Project is celebrating Frederick William True, who worked at the Smithsonian from 1881 until 1914 and held a variety of positions during his career, including Smithsonian Librarian, Curator of the Division of Mammals, Executive Curator of the United States National Museum, Head Curator of the Department of Biology, and Assistant Secretary in charge of the Library and International Exchange Service. True is an outstanding example of the deep connections among what may seem like separate Departments, Divisions, and units at the Smithsonian, which still exist even today.

His field books showcase the close associations True embodied: today, one is held by the Division of Mammals, one by the Division of Birds, one by the Department of Paleobiology, and six by the Smithsonian Institution Archives. Through the Field Book Project, these and other field books can be reunited, digitally and online through the Biodiversity Heritage Library and Smithsonian Collections Search Center.

This month, in collaboration with its partners, the Field Book Project will be coordinating a series of blogs about FW True’s life and contributions to science. These blogs will provide a background for and culminate in a Smithsonian Transcription Center #FWTrueLove challenge, beginning on Valentine’s Day, to engage interested audiences and Volunpeers in True’s written legacy and see how much we can transcribe in as little as one week! Nick Pyenson, Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals, will help to lead the challenge by engaging with the Volunpeers on social media and providing additional information as the Volunpeers make their way through True’s materials. Details about that challenge, including the special Kellogg Library collections tour (featuring items actually touched by F. W. True!) Dr. Pyenson will offer to those who participate, will be released later this month on the Field Book Project blog. Again, the blog series will begin on this Thursday, February 5th, and the Transcription Challenge on Saturday, February 14th. Stay tuned and please join in the fun!

This celebration is a collaborative effort between multiple Smithsonian units and departments, including the Smithsonian Institution Archives, the Smithsonian Libraries and Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Smithsonian Transcription Center, and the NMNH Department of Paleobiology in order to showcase the unique breadth and depth of the archival science materials here at the Institution.